The pronunciation lab
Ten sound pairs, each one game: hear a word, tap which of two you heard. The fastest way to grow a sound the mother tongue doesn't have.
A minimal pair is two words one sound apart — ship and sheep. When a child can reliably HEAR the difference, saying it follows almost by itself; drilling the mouth before the ear is doing it backwards.
Each lab below marks which mother tongue it bites hardest. Start with your class's traps.
ship or sheepɪ · iːThe short i and the long ee — the most famous pair in English teaching.🌍 everyone's trapvet or wetv · wV bites the lip, W rounds the lips — Russian has only the first, so wet becomes vet.🪆 the Russian trapberry or veryb · vIn Spanish, b and v share one sound. English keeps them apart — lips for b, teeth for v.🌮 the Spanish traprock or lockr · lThe English r never touches the roof of the mouth; the l always does. A tongue-position pair.🌍 everyone's trapthink or sinkθ · sThe famous th: tongue between the teeth, air over the top. Neither Russian nor most Spanish has it.🌍 everyone's trapthree or treeθ · tWhen th is hard, children swap in t — and three trees become tree trees.🌍 everyone's trapchip or shiptʃ · ʃCh starts with a tiny t-stop; sh flows from the first instant. Spanish has ch but not sh, so ships become chips.🌮 the Spanish trapcat or cutæ · ʌThe wide smiling a of cat against the short dark u of cut — two vowels most languages fold into one.🌍 everyone's trapjet or yetdʒ · jJ buzzes like a motor; y glides like the start of 'йогурт'. Russian speakers pour the buzz into both.🪆 the Russian trappear or bearp · bP is a puff of air, b is not — English cares about the puff more than most languages do.🌍 everyone's trap